Religion | Ain't Complicated

Best Seats in Church

I like my title — All Welcome (Except on Christmas) — better than the one used by Yahoo! News for this Reuters story:

Some senior German politicians have caused a stir by suggesting that only citizens who pay church tax should be allowed to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Worried that regular churchgoers cannot find a seat due to the popularity of the traditional Christmas service….

What’s the rate of this church tax, ten percent?

And how are the collected monies disbursed?

Martin Lindner, a member of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, also expressed alarm at the lack of places in church and told Bild that parish members should get tickets entitling them to the best seats.

I wonder where their best seats are?

Where are the best seats in your meeting house? And what makes them so?

Germany’s Catholic and Protestant churches get most of their funding from revenues collected by the tax office.

😯

So most people don’t tithe or give offerings?!

Object of Worship

As a father and a grandfather and a Christian, this makes me sad:

In this April 8, 2008 file photo, mother Sushma holds her daughter Lali at their residence in Saini Sunpura, 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of New Delhi, India. The baby with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said.

Source: Yahoo! News

A Gift

For first time, Christmas official holiday in Iraq

Iraq’s Christians, a scant minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, quietly celebrated Christmas on Thursday with a present from the government, which declared it an official holiday for the first time.

But security worries overshadowed the day for many, particularly in the north where thousands of Christians have fled to escape religious attacks.

Overall security in Iraq has improved markedly in the past year, but a fatal car bombing in Baghdad on Christmas morning was a gruesome reminder that serious problems remain.

[…]

A senior Shiite cleric, Ammar al-Hakim, attended the Mass flanked by bodyguards in a gesture of cooperation with Christians.

[…]

Iraq’s Christians, estimated to number only a few hundred thousand of the country’s 26 million people, have often been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq. Tens of thousands have fled; many of those who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints.

And joyous Christmas to you as well!

Morning News

Three stories: New Bionic Arms for Wounded Soldiers, Trimming Words Out of a Dictionary, and “Tell Me How to Do It.”

New Bionic Arms for Wounded Soldiers

The Luke Arm has four fingers and an opposable thumb, and was designed to be controlled by muscular movement in the wearer’s remaining limbs.

But thanks to neurological advances in “targeted renervation” by Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Luke Arm can now connect directly to motor nerves, meaning it can be controlled purely by thought alone.

And the nerve connections are two-way: The wearer gets “force feedback” about his own grip and movements, allowing him to pick up an empty water bottle without crushing it.

Many cheers for Dean Kamen and Dr. Todd Kuiken and the Department of Defense.

Trimming Words Out of a Dictionary

Oxford University Press has removed words like “aisle”, “bishop”, “chapel”, “empire” and “monarch” from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like “blog”, “broadband” and “celebrity”. Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.

The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.

But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain’s heritage.

“We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable,” said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. “The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us.”

[…]

Words taken out:

Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe

Dwarf, elf, goblin

Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar

Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade

adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

Some of those deletions are astounding!

Then again, how would you keep a dictionary from becoming thicker and thicker?

Even so, jeers not cheers for that dictionary and its publisher?

“Tell Me How to Do It”

A Korean immigrant who lost his wife, two children and mother-in-law when a Marine Corps jet slammed into the family’s house said Tuesday he did not blame the pilot, who ejected and survived.

“Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident,” a distraught Dong Yun Yoon told reporters gathered near the site of Monday’s crash of an F/A-18D jet in San Diego’s University City community.

“He is one of our treasures for the country,” Yoon said in accented English punctuated by long pauses while he tried to maintain his composure.

“I don’t blame him. I don’t have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could,” said Yoon, flanked by members of San Diego’s Korean community, relatives and members from the family’s church.

[…]

“I know there are many people who have experienced more terrible things,” Yoon said. “But, please, tell me how to do it. I don’t know what to do.”

He doesn’t blame the pilot?!

He wants you to pray that the pilot wouldn’t suffer?!

He considers the pilot a national treasure?!

He knows others have suffered greater tragedy?!

Mr. Yoon, you are quite the man!

(Dare I say he’s obviously not a “typical” home-grown American?)

May God sustain Mr. Yoon and the young pilot.

(And keep the lawyers and “suers” away from Mr. Yoon, please. Thanks.)

Suppose I’m at WalMart and see an item with a price that’s so “too good to be true” that it must be a mistake. Say a normally $300 digital camera for $30. So I attempt to purchase it for $30…and succeed.

What should I do in such a case?

Tell the store management about the matter.
Tell family and friends about the “great deal that’s surely a mistake so you’d better buy a camera before they discover and rectify the mistake.”
Blog about it here so you can “check your local WalMart for the same or similar goofs.”
Buy as many of those cameras as I can so I can resell them at a profit.

What say you?

And why?

How Long Will This Last?

The Portland Oregonian reports:

An image of a very pregnant Mary, the mother of Jesus, looks down on Old Town from a billboard on West Burnside Street and Northwest Third Avenue. In the weeks before Christmas, she is a reminder of the approaching celebration of her son’s birth.

Here’s a photo of the billboard:

It’s good to be reminded of the shame Joseph and Mary were willing to endure.

Oh, and if anyone in my Portland fan club can take a picture of the billboard for me, I’d really appreciate it. Then I won’t have to mooch the Oregonian’s for very long. 😯

Terror Strike: India

Reuters reports: Mumbai hit by deadly attacks

At least 10 people were killed and 26 wounded in a series of shootings around India’s financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday night, with two five-star hotels among the targets in what police called a terror attack.

Maharahstra state police chief A.N. Roy said attackers had fired automatic weapons indiscriminately, and used grenades, adding that they were still holed up in some buildings.

“These are terrorist strikes in at least seven places,” he told the NDTV news channel.

“Unknown terrorists have gone with automatic weapons and opened fire indiscriminately. At a few places they even used grenades.

Police said targets included the luxury Taj and Oberoi hotels, with television stations showing the lobby of both hotels on fire and people being evacuated from the Oberoi with their hands on their heads.

But the Times of India reports at least 80 dead:

Terror struck the country’s financial capital late on Wednesday night as coordinate serial explosions and indiscriminate firing rocked eight areas across Mumbai including the crowded CST railway station, two five star hotels–Oberoi and Taj.

At least 80 people were dead and 250 injured in the terror attacks, hospital sources said.

Two terrorists were still inside the Oberoi Hotel and commando operation was on.

Is this an effort to further destabilize the global economy?

Does it portend attacks on other financial centers?

Who knows. Maybe Al Qaeda. Certainly God.

There’s also this headline out there: Report of Terror Threat on Subways

The New York Police Department deployed extra officers and stepped up security measures in the subways and other mass-transit stations on Wednesday after learning of al Qaeda discussions to coordinate a wave of explosions in the subway system over the holidays, the authorities announced.

Well, whatever’s going on, we need to pray for those in authority and in law enforcement and in emergency services.

And for those suffering in India.

And for God’s people, that they may rise to represent His love and compassion and helpfulness.